I had an "interesting" encounter at Starbucks tonight. This lady heard me request soy milk in my latte. She asked me if I'm lactose intolerant. I replied, "of sorts, yes ma'am". I thought that would be that and I could go back to waiting for my latte in peace... I was very very wrong.... Apparently, I had unknowingly put on my "Please tell me more" face and she was happy to oblige!

She randomly started to educate me about "vayguns". ( Soy milk must be a hot button issue for her.) Per her estimation, "Vayguns" are really crazy and don't eat meat or drink milk. And she told me all about how rude they are, always pushing their weird ideas on people, etc.

When she finally took a breath, I noticed the barista had finished making my coffee so, I very politely extended my hand said, "I'm a vegan, nice to meet you." Took my coffee and left.

Once when I was at Starbucks, I ordered my soy frap, and asked for no whip. The barista tries to convince me to get the whip, because "it's special chocolate whip." I told her I'd get sick of I had it. So she goes, "why don't you take one of those pills?" I'm trying to explain that I can't, meanwhile, she's blabbering on "you know, the lactaid ones? They have 24 hour ones now." I took my drink and just said, "that doesn't work for me." And she goes, "oh, that's such a shame."

As if the only reason that people didn't eat dairy was because they were lactose intolerant.

Yeah, your response was great. That's like something I would wish I'd said after awkwardly listening for too long and then wandering away.

Ha! I have the tendency to awkwardly wander off, too, so I take comfort in knowing someone else does the same.

Thanks for being so polite. Wouldn't it be great if your awesomeness made her realize how absurd the whole situation was? But of course by now, you probably had two heads and were using both to call people murderers when they ordered things with milk...

Thanks for being so polite. Wouldn't it be great if your awesomeness made her realize how absurd the whole situation was? But of course by now, you probably had two heads and were using both to call people murderers when they ordered things with milk...

I'm sure her retelling had me picketing the joint and slapping breves out of people's hands left and right! Because isn't that what we all do? I mean, when we're not trashing science labs of course.

I thought about it.. Then I could have said, "AND they scald people with soy lattes, bisque!" But, then I looked at my receipt and realized it was a $5 latte so that was NOT happening, shiitake is expensive now that I have to pay for soy and syrups!

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 8120Location: United States of New England

very classy response!!!

im surprised that happened to you in a starbucks, ive only had good experiences there regarding soy milk. it's the one place i go and order soy and am confident i will actually get soy. (only one time was i given milk and i tasted it right away, blech)

I thought about it.. Then I could have said, "AND they scald people with soy lattes, bisque!" But, then I looked at my receipt and realized it was a $5 latte so that was NOT happening, shiitake is expensive now that I have to pay for soy and syrups!

Once when I was at Starbucks, I ordered my soy frap, and asked for no whip. The barista tries to convince me to get the whip, because "it's special chocolate whip." I told her I'd get sick of I had it. So she goes, "why don't you take one of those pills?" I'm trying to explain that I can't, meanwhile, she's blabbering on "you know, the lactaid ones? They have 24 hour ones now." I took my drink and just said, "that doesn't work for me." And she goes, "oh, that's such a shame."

As if the only reason that people didn't eat dairy was because they were lactose intolerant.

As if the only reason not to eat Whip cream is because you don't like dairy, I mean, ick.

im surprised that happened to you in a starbucks, ive only had good experiences there regarding soy milk. it's the one place i go and order soy and am confident i will actually get soy. (only one time was i given milk and i tasted it right away, blech)

clearly this lady had an axe to grind!

The baristas are all super cool at SB, this was just some random crazy-lady customer who was in line behind me and ended up talking to me and waiting next to me. Living in a smallish MidWestern town, I expect people to not 'get' Vegans but this was completely out of left field!!

I grew up raised vegetarian, so I have been hearing about how pushy vegetarians/vegans are pretty much since I have been able to argue. I've looked, I still haven't met one. (Maybe it's a perspective thing.)

However, I have met a lot of pushy people who like to tell me how pushy vegetarians and vegans are.

Once when I was at Starbucks, I ordered my soy frap, and asked for no whip. The barista tries to convince me to get the whip, because "it's special chocolate whip." I told her I'd get sick of I had it. So she goes, "why don't you take one of those pills?" I'm trying to explain that I can't, meanwhile, she's blabbering on "you know, the lactaid ones? They have 24 hour ones now." I took my drink and just said, "that doesn't work for me." And she goes, "oh, that's such a shame."

As if the only reason that people didn't eat dairy was because they were lactose intolerant.

I grew up raised vegetarian, so I have been hearing about how pushy vegetarians/vegans are pretty much since I have been able to argue. I've looked, I still haven't met one. (Maybe it's a perspective thing.)

However, I have met a lot of pushy people who like to tell me how pushy vegetarians and vegans are.

I find that, around here at least, overly religious people are WAY more pushy than I could ever dream of being. I very badly wanted to point out that if vegans are so pushy and crazy, why didn't I hand her a pamphlet about the horrors of dairy as soon as she started talking to me... But, I figured we were in a facts and logic free zone.

I grew up raised vegetarian, so I have been hearing about how pushy vegetarians/vegans are pretty much since I have been able to argue. I've looked, I still haven't met one. (Maybe it's a perspective thing.)

However, I have met a lot of pushy people who like to tell me how pushy vegetarians and vegans are.

I find that, around here at least, overly religious people are WAY more pushy than I could ever dream of being. I very badly wanted to point out that if vegans are so pushy and crazy, why didn't I hand her a pamphlet about the horrors of dairy as soon as she started talking to me... But, I figured we were in a facts and logic free zone.

I think you should have started prosthelytizing about pushy vegan Jesus.

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 8120Location: United States of New England

DancesWithTofu wrote:

LisaPunk wrote:

very classy response!!!

im surprised that happened to you in a starbucks, ive only had good experiences there regarding soy milk. it's the one place i go and order soy and am confident i will actually get soy. (only one time was i given milk and i tasted it right away, blech)

clearly this lady had an axe to grind!

The baristas are all super cool at SB, this was just some random crazy-lady customer who was in line behind me and ended up talking to me and waiting next to me. Living in a smallish MidWestern town, I expect people to not 'get' Vegans but this was completely out of left field!!

i totally misread your first post, i thought it was the cashier who went on the rant!stoopid customers >_<